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Putnam Competition Individual and Team Winners

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is an annual contest for college students established in 1938 in memory of its namesake.

Each year on the first Saturday in December, over 2000 students spend 6 hours (in two sittings) trying to solve 12 problems. Individual and team winners (and their schools, in the latter case) get some money and a few minutes of fame.

Cash prizes for the top five teams in recent years ranged from $25,000 to $5,000. Recent cash prizes for the top five individuals have been $2,500 each. Below the individual winners for each year are listed in alphabetical order.

The Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize was established in 1992 to be "awarded periodically to a woman whose performance on the Competition has been deemed particularly meritorious". Recent winners of the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize have received $1,000. Over the years many of the winners of the Putnam competition have become distinguished mathematicians. A number of them have received the Fields Medal and several have won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize

Sixty-second Competition- 2001

Teams

1. Harvard University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Duke University
4. University of California, Berkeley
5. Stanford University

Individual Putnam Fellows

Reid W. Barton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gabriel D. Carroll, Harvard University
Kevin D. Lacker, Duke University
George Lee, Jr., Harvard University
Jan K. Siwanowicz, City College, City University of New York

Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize

Melanie E. Wood Duke University

Sixty-first Competition- 2000

Teams

1. Duke University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Harvard University
4. California Institute of Technology
5. University of Toronto

Forty-ninth Competition - 1988

Teams

1. Harvard University
2. Princeton University
3. Rice University
4. University of Waterloo
5. California Institute of Technology

Individual Putnam Fellows

David Grabiner, Princeton University
Jeremy A. Kahn, Harvard University
David J. Moews, Harvard University
Bjorn M. Poonen, Harvard University
Ravi D. Vakil, University of Toronto

Forty-eighth Competition -1987

Teams

1. Harvard University
2. Princeton University
3. Carnegie Mellon University
4. University of California, Berkeley
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Individual Putnam Fellows

David J. Grabiner, Princeton University
David J. Moews, Harvard University
Bjorn M. Poonen, Harvard University
Michael Reid, Harvard University
Constantin S. Teleman, Harvard University
John S. Tillinghast, University of California, Davis

Forty-third Competition - 1982

Teams

1. Harvard University
2. University of Waterloo
3. California Institute of Technology
4. Yale University
5. Princeton University

Individual Putnam Fellows

David W. Ash, University of Waterloo
Eric D. Carlson, Michigan State University
Noam D. Elkies, Columbia University
Brian R. Hunt, University of Maryland, College Park
Edward A. Shpiz, Washington University, St. Louis

Forty-second Competition - 1981

Teams

1. Washington University, St. Louis
2. Princeton University
3. Harvard University
4. Stanford University
5. University of Maryland, College Park

Individual Putnam Fellows

David W. Ash, University of Waterloo
Scott R. Fluhrer, Case Western Reserve University
Michael J. Larsen, Harvard University
Robin A. Pemantle, University of California, Berkeley
Adam Stephanides, University of Chicago

Forty-first Competition - 1980

Teams

1. Washington University, St. Louis
2. Harvard University
3. University of Maryland, College Park
4. University of Chicago
5. University of California, Berkeley

Twenty-third Competition - 1962

Teams

1. California Institute of Technology
2. Dartmouth College
3. Harvard University
4. Queens University
5. University of California, Los Angeles

Individual Putnam Fellows

Edward Anton Bender, California Institute of Technology
John Hathaway Lindsey, California Institute of Technology
Robert S. Strichartz, Dartmouth College
William C. Waterhouse, Harvard University
John William Wood, Harvard University

Twenty-second Competition - 1961

Teams

1. Michigan State University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. California Institute of Technology
4. Harvard University
5. Dartmouth College

Twenty-first Competition - 1960

Teams

1. University of California, Berkeley
2. Harvard University
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4. Michigan State University
5. Cornell University

Individual Putnam Fellows

William R. Emerson, California Institute of Technology
Jon H. Folkman, University of California, Berkeley
Melvin Hochster, Harvard University
Louis Jaeckel, University of California, Los Angeles
Samuel Jacob Klein, City College of New York

Twentieth Competition - 1959

Teams

1. Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
2. California Institute of Technology
3. University of Toronto
4. Harvard University
5. Case Western Reserve University

Individual Putnam Fellows

Stephen L. Adler, Harvard University
Donald S. Gorman, Harvard University
Alfred W. Hales, California Institute of Technology
Martin Isaacs, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
Samuel Jacob Klein, City College of New York
Stephen Lichtenbaum, Harvard University
Samuel Jacob Klein, City College of New York
Donald Passman, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
Daniel G. Quillen, Harvard University

Nineteenth Competition - 1958 (Fall)

Teams

1. Harvard University
2. University of Toronto
3. California Institute of Technology
4. Cornell University

Individual Putnam Fellows

Alfred W. Hales, California Institute of Technology
Robert C. Hartshorne, Harvard University
John Rex Forrester Hewett, University of Toronto
Joseph Lipman, University of Toronto
Alan Gaisford Waterman, San Diego State College

Eighteenth Competition - 1958 (Spring)

Teams

1. Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
2. Harvard University
3. University of Toronto
4. University of Manitoba

Thirteeneth Competition - 1953

Teams

1. Harvard University
2. City College of New York
2. Cornell University
4. University of California, Berkeley

Individual Putnam Fellows

Norman Bauman, Harvard University
Marshall L. Freimer, Harvard University
James B. Herreshoff IV, University of California, Berkeley
Samuel Jacob Klein, City College of New York
Tai Tsun Wu, University of Minnesota

Eleventh Competition - 1951

Teams

1. Cornell University
2. Harvard University
3. Cooper Union
4. City College of New York

Individual Putnam Fellows

Arthur P. Dempster, University of Toronto
James B. Herreshoff IV, University of California, Berkeley
Herbert C. Kranzer, New York University
Peter John Redmond, Cooper Union
Harold Widom, City College of New York

Tenth Competition - 1950

Teams

1. California Institute of Technology
2. Harvard University
3. New York University
4. University of Toronto

Individual Putnam Fellows

John P. Mayberry, University of Toronto
Z. Alexander Melzak, University of British Columbia
J. W. Milnor, Princeton University
Donald J. Newman, City College of New York
Richard J. Semple, University of Toronto

Ninth Competition - 1949

Teams

1. Harvard University
2. University of Toronto
3. Carnegie Institute of Technology
4. City College of New York

Individual Putnam Fellows

J. W. Milnor, Princeton University
Donald J. Newman, City College of New York
W. Forrest Stinespring, Harvard University
David L. Yarmush, Harvard University
Ariel Zemach, Harvard University

Eighth Competition - 1948

Teams

1. Brooklyn College
2. University of Toronto
3. Harvard University
4. (tie) City College of New York
4. (tie) McGill

Individual Putnam Fellows

George F. D. Duff, University of Toronto
Leonard Geller, Brooklyn College
Harry Gonshor, McGill University
Robert L. Mills, Columbia University
Donald J. Newman, City College of New York
Eoin L. Whitney, University of Alberta

Seventh Competition - 1947

Teams

1. Harvard University
2. Yale University
3. Columbia University
4. University of Pennsylvania

Individual Putnam Fellows

Clarence Wilson Hewlett, Jr, Harvard University
Maxwell Rosenlicht, Columbia University
W. Forrest Stinespring, Harvard University
William Turanski, University of Pennsylvania
Eoin L. Whitney, University of Alberta

Fifth Competition - 1942

Teams

1. University of Toronto
2. Yale University
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4. City College of New York

Individual Putnam Fellows

Harvey Cohn, City College of New York
Andrew M. Gleason, Yale University
Warren S. Loud, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harold Victor Lyons, University of Toronto
Melvin A. Preston, University of Toronto

Fourth Competition - 1941

Teams

1. Brooklyn College
2. University of Pennsylvania
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Third Competition - 1940

Teams

1. University of Toronto
2. Yale University
3. Columbia University

Individual Putnam Fellows

W. J. R. Crosby, University of Toronto
Andrew M. Gleason, Yale University
Edward L. Kaplan, Carnegie Institute of Technology
John Cotton Maynard, University of Toronto
Robert Maughan Snow, George Washington University

Second Competition - 1939

Teams

Individual Putnam Fellows

Richard P. Feynman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abraham Hillman, Brooklyn College
Edward L. Kaplan, Carnegie Institute of Technology
William Nierenberg, City College of New York
Bernard Sherman, Brooklyn College

First Competition - 1938

Teams

1. University of Toronto
2. University of California, Berkeley
3. Columbia University

Individual Putnam Fellows

Robert W. Gibson, Fort Hays Kansas State College
Irving Kaplansky, University of Toronto
George W. Mackey, Rice University
Michael J. Norris, College of St. Thomas
Bernard Sherman, Brooklyn College